Actually, John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence with a very large, embellished signature, stating that he wanted King George to be able to read it without his spectacles. Since then, any such signature (and eventually, any signature) on a document has occasionally been referred to as a "John Hancock."
Yes, I think it’s a great little idiom & I always loved John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration of Independence….striking w/a flair for the dramatic!!👍
John Hancock was the first President of the First Continental Congress (essentially, the chairman of the representatives chosen by the different colonies i.e. states to decide what to do about their issues with the British government). John Hancock was the last to affix his signature to the document of the Declaration of Independence, which he did in a flourish, probably because he had a healthy ego (he was the second-richest man in the American colonies).
I think it’s important to say you “plead the fifth” because answering the question truthfully would incriminate you. It’s not just not wanting to answer a question. It’s not wanting to answer because you would reveal something about yourself.
Yes. In court you’d use it if answering would basically be confessing a crime or at least making you look very suspicious. In colloquial usage it’s a way of saying “I know better than answer that question.”, “I’m not getting involved in that discussion.”, or just “I’m not saying anything.”
And there is a difference between its use in criminal and civil proceedings. In a civil proceeding, if you plead the fifth, the jury can draw adverse inference from you pleading it. That is, they can infer that you did something wrong because you chose not to incriminate yourself. The jury can't do this in a criminal proceeding.
“Bang for your buck” doesn’t just mean a good deal - most often it carries with it the word “more” in a comparative sense, as in: you have $50 to spend and you could go to Nordstrom, but decide to go to Fred Meyer because it’s less expensive and you could get 2 pairs of jeans (or whatever) v. the 1 you could only get at Nordstrom because each pair costs more. You get more bang for your buck: more items for the money you spent. Also: many ppl say “frosh” for freshman. Unimpressed with the John Hancock and plead the fifth segments.
The American distinction between "broil" and "grill": When you GRILL, there is a heat source BELOW an item which is on a grillwork cooking the item. When you BROIL, there is a heatsource which is overhead (only) cooking the item, whether it is on a grillwork or in a pan.
oh yeah, was really weird to see Broil in there, because we still Grill haha. I personally broil things in an oven to give them a nice brown, crispy top, but they are already cooked anyway
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. In a oven we grill from the top Out side we use a bbq or a grill
@@grahamlowe314 Which brings up another distinction here in the US. Grilling food and barbecuing food are different. Grilling means high heat from below and a short cooking time, usually uncovered. Barbecuing is slow heat over a long period of time and is done in an enclosed unit. Most people own something that can do both but restaurants and professionals use separate equipment. Many barbecues look like old oil drums sliced in half from top to bottom and put on their side. In other words, you grill a steak or burger but barbecue a brisket or ribs.
@@hectorsmommy1717 Now in the English speaking world all what you have described is grilling meat. We understand the difference between grilling meat in a house or outside . We also have bbq with covers and know how to cook fast or slow with them .Remember it’s the English language
I think that’s closer to the real meaning like she said “saying something that already happened” it’s like a quarter back being late Sunday and showing up Monday so sort of being late to the party of saying something
@@DogeDragone right. But the reason the phrase refers to Monday morning is that most football games happen on Sunday. That context is needed to know that Monday morning is referring to after an event has already happened.
I more refers to the people that talk about what should have happened during the game. With the benefit of hindsight. Very similar to armchair quarterback
@@flyingwombatazazz6736, similar but not quite the same, an armchair quarterback is slightly different in that an armchair quarterback. An armchair quarterback is often suggesting alternative methods either while or even before the person who is actually responsible for making the call is making them, they often will not be effected by the results of their suggestions or have their idea effect what is going on, they are also often less informed suggestions than a better informed person would be making. A Monday morning quarterback is being criticized for making what they consider the better call after the fact (though clearly it may not be) whereas the armchair quarterback is being criticized for making them while the decision making is going on, either with irritation because their ideas are unwanted or of lower quality than those who are actually making the decisions or has no effect one way or the other on the decision being made in the moment.
Those people in the UK refer to the junior and senior years of what we call high school (secondary education) as "sixth form," specifically "lower sixth form" and "upper sixth form." (That is, if I am not mistaken.)
Its honestly more relevant in High School than college. Also in college, these are official terms based on the number of hours completed rather than years completed. Often you have to be a Junior before you can take 300+ level classes - though I think this is a rule was removed.
In the US, I’ve always used it for both. In high school, you can use grade number and Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior. In college/university, I’ve only ever heard Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior. BUT, I’m 46, that should have changed since I graduated.
The original concept behind "knock on wood' was that evil spirits listen to our talking and if you speak of some misfortune you haven't experienced, it gives them an idea how to hurt you. You knock on wood to invoke good spirits, nature spirits, to ward off the evil spirits from carrying out the specific misfortune you mentioned.
I've always heard that wood (as in trees) was specifically used because the vibrations would carry down into the roots, scaring the spirits away. Similar to ringing a bell.
Travis has part of it, but the whole story includes the superstition that a dryad or other fey creature lived inside the tree you were about to chop down, so you knocked on wood to wake it and warn it, so it wouldn't bounce the axe head back into your leg and confer a life-threatening chop.
Yes, I think Travis and Ross pretty much have the superstition correct. I think that this custom and belief actually originated with the Germanic tribes in the early Middle Ages, who had many woodland spirits.
I could've sworn that was a tradition inherited from the British which is why I'm surprised it's still not a superstition that bad spirits lurk in wood
The opposite of a "New York minute" in American English is "island time", "island" referring to the Hawaii Islands, were the pace of life is much slower. I was actually in Hawaii a few months ago, and I almost missed my flight home because the airport security guards were taking their sweet time in scanning the luggages, lol.
@@gulfgal98 oh, i hasn't had that in awhile. Im in VA and it seems like we got a mix of southern and our own thing going. Wait, just caught that "own thing going" is that southern or?
I have heard two origins for the whole nine yards. One refers to the length of belt fed ammo in fighter planes during WW2. So if you give it the whole nine yards, you gave it everything you had. Also, and I believe this one is the original, it could refer to square rigged sailing ships. Sails were called yards. For a time, three masted ships could have three yards on each mast. So giving it the whole 9 yards means you have all of the sails up and in the wind. You gave it your all.
Important points missed Monday morning quarterback, traditionally all American football games were on Sunday so Monday morning at work everyone is discussing the games with would've should've could've. John Hancock on Declaration of Independence his is the largest signature, rumors are that he wanted King George to be able to see it.
Similar to the Monday morning quarterback is the armchair quarterback. The armchair quarterback watches all the football games from his armchair and thinks he knows what everybody should do, even though he may never have even played the game. It also refers to someone who acts like they know everything about a situation, when he really isn't even involved.
John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence and his signature is very prominent (i.e., BIG) in relation to the other founding fathers' signatures. He wanted to make a statement by doing so rather just give his endorsement. Colloquially, "Give me your John Hancock." just means the same thing as "Sign here."
It was primarily an act of defiance, since they knew that if their effort failed, they would probably be hunted down and executed for treason, so yeah, might as well sign big.
Even ostensibly educated Yanks (like me) sometimes stumble when referring to the Declaration of Independence vs. the Constitution. *Fun fact* both have an introductory statement. Only one is titled Preamble.
I heard about an English lady who hadn't been in America very long. She was grocery shopping, and she found a couple of store employees and asked where she could find the ice lollies. They had no idea what she was talking about, but trying to be helpful, they suggested that she look in the bakery. Ice lollies are what we usually call popsicles.
@@steveaustin2686 I was thinking along those same lines, but I thought that when they heard the word ice, they thought of icing and that made them think of cake.
@@Phiyedough grilling in the US is to cook from below with heat (usually flame) passing through a grating that holds the item being grilled. Broiling is heat from above, even the sun will broil you.
@@Phiyedough That’s because you misunderstand what barbecue is. Cooking for a short time on a grate over direct, dry, high heat from charcoal, a gas flame or similar is grilling. It is not barbecue. Barbecue involves a lengthy (hours long) cook over low, indirect heat and smoke, with careful control of humidity in the cooking vessel, or barbecue pit. Barbecue involves planning and a significant time commitment. You can’t, e.g., spontaneously invite coworkers to your place for a barbecue after work unless you are planning to eat well past midnight or even late the next day. Throwing a few burgers and sausages on a grill is not barbecue.
@@mikeevans4585 being behind the eight ball is in the cue ball is his hind the eight ball, so the eight ball will be hit no matter what one of the players on balls he goes for. It’s not just a disability because it’s something that your opponent deliberately tries to do to you so that you have to waste your turn without hitting any balls, which is home table, scratch and allows them to pick up the cue ball behind the shooting line when used correctly, it means either that you’re at the severe disadvantage you can’t keep your balls and they get to place the queue wherever they want or that someone need a dick move that with you and disadvantage and it wasn’t just a turn of luck that put you there
Broiling is actually *not* the same as grilling. Grilling involves heating from below, often with an open flame (or heat source generally--see "grilled cheese"), while broil is an oven setting providing intense radiant heat from above. Top tip: if your pizza's thoroughly cooked but lacks browning on the top, set the oven to broil and check after 1 minute, then every 30 seconds after that until it's got the doneness you want. You'll have your beautiful pizza ready within 2-3 minutes, maximum!
i was thinking about this when they asked about "Freshie". When my daughter was in high school she definitely called the Freshman "Freshies" - at least the ones in band!
In pool, if you're playing the game of 8-ball, the 8-ball is the last ball for you to put in, after all the solid colors or all the stripes (whichever group you are trying to sink). If you have a shot you would like to take, but the 8-ball is blocking the pocket you would use to sink some other ball, you're said to be "behind the 8-ball." This has been generalized to mean that when you're "behind the 8-ball" you're being blocked from doing something you desire or need to do.
The familiar British equivalent would be “snookered”, which also means to be placed in a difficult position in billiards, just a different game than Eight Ball.
A grill cooks something on the bottom. A broiler cooks something on the top. The grill touches the food, the broiler doesn’t touch it and thus isn’t a grill.
"Sophomore" is a combination of Greek root words- "Soph" meaning wise, and "More" meaning foolish. Carries a connotation of someone with some knowledge, yet still a fool in other ways.
I believe the "Whole nine yards" phrase had to do with cloth or material for sewing. If I remember correctly, a bolt of cloth is nine square yards. So if you needed a lot of fabric, you might say something like, "Oh, I like this material, I'll take the whole nine yards."
Actually Give them the whole nine yards got it's start from WWII fighter pilots The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of WWII were in chains twenty-seven feet in length (9 yards) Thus if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target he was said to have given his adversary 'the full nine yards'. ....So in short the whole nine yards means give it everything you have to give and hold nothing back....
@@jrthmc29 I knew I wouldn't have to type all that, you did it for me. I believe that was the maximum amount the ammo 'container' held for that weapon. must have been reasonably heavy.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing Very heavy! And it was common to have three Browning M2 50 cal machine guns in each wing, so the whole nine yards was really 54 yards.
This is what I have heard. "The whole nine yards" originated (I believe) from the WWII 'Flying Tigers' in China. The Curtiss P-40 fighter plane had belt-fed machine guns that had bullet-carrying belts that were nine yards long. If a pilot shot all nine yards at a Japanese airplane, he could say "I gave him the whole nine yards!" meaning, I shot everything I had at the enemy plane. In modern usage, it roughly means: "everything", or "I gave it all I could."
4:31 We do have the similar term "country mile" to refer to a long, undefined distance. The idea being that rural people greatly underestimate (or understate) distances, since everything is farther apart out in the country, ergo what feels like only one mile to them might in actuality be more like two miles.
The British version of "behind the eight ball" is "snookered." The whole nine yards comes from cutting cloth, as long ago cloth came in 9 yard bolts, so to go the whole nine yards meant getting it all.
I had heard that "the whole nine yards" came from wwII, when the ammo belts for the machineguns in US fighters were 27 ft long, so if you came back to base without any bullets left you had given the enemy the whole 9 yards
John Hancock was President of the US Congress! He signed the Declaration of Independence the other 55 signed later! He had the biggest signature on it.
A Yd is 3’ (ft) or 36” (in) The whole 9 Yds is the amount of length of .50 caliber ammunition belt in the box. 27 Feet of bullets in the belt of ammunition.
For John Hancock, it should also be mentioned that his signature on the Declaration of Independence is very outsized compared to all the other signatures.
John Hancock famously made his signature larger than the others and allegedly said that he wrote it large enough for King George to see from Philadelphia (or wherever it was signed)
There are 2 other phrases that are used in the states, primarily in the south. The first one has 2 variations: hold your horses, or hold your damn horses. Both mean to slow down, though 2nd variation is a bit more blunt. The other phrase, which is basically the kiss of death in the south is "bless your heart". You are basically telling someone to piss off cause your mad at them for a set reason. However, you also need to understand the context of how the phrase 'bless your heart' is being used, along with the tone of voice being used by the one saying it.
For about 12 years I worked in the Boston office of a British publishing company. One word I ran across that confused the Brits on the team was “Druthers”. It came up in some discussion; my British boss asked for opinions. I said “If I had my druthers we’d ...”. My response left the Brits on the team furrowing their brows. It basically means “choices”, as in “if the choices were mine”. I’ve understood it comes from a contraction of “I’d rather” and it seems it was popularized by Mark Twain.
I use the expression d'ruthers still ) likely from Mother. Yes to the above, it seems to be a vulgarization of "I'd rather, x or y, if I had my d'ruthers.
In some of the many dialects of Southern American English in the 19th Century, “rather” was pronounced as closer to “ruther”. So “I’d rather” sounded like “I’d ruther” or “I druther” and the expression stuck.
"For the birds" is another idiom involved with farming, particularly wheat. When the wheat is separated from the chaff, the chaff is then considered useful only to the birds, which will glean through it for any missed kernels. When a field is harvested, usually flocks of birds follow looking for small bits of edible bits, regardless of what is being harvested.
That actually makes far more sense than the explanation I've heard about it being a more vulgar WWII U.S. Army phrase (that's s*** for the birds) regarding birds pecking through horse droppings for seeds.
I was thinking something similar, but suspect it had more to do with poultry livestock rather than wild birds. People with chickens will give them bread that is stale, trimmings from the vegetables the humans eat, grain that has gotten infested with bugs, etc.
In the US, you're also a Freshman in the first year of high school, and high schools use Sophomore, Junior, and Senior as well. We usually don't reduce it to anything (that's much more of a British trait with words and phrases).
Fifth Amendment protects you from self-incrimination, so when your mum asks if you ate the last cookie (biscuit?), you might plead the fifth. "Hawaiian Time" is pretty much the opposite of a New York Minute. In Hawaii, a party invite that says 7 pm means most folks show up at 8:30 pm.
In German we have the same phrase "knock on wood" : Klopf auf Holz....We are also supposed to find something wooden, sometimes jokingly knock our own heads😉
I think it might be because so many people immigrated from Germany. Both sides of my dad's family did. My mother's family were from the UK and Native American.
This would suggest that the English phrase originates from German immigrants around the Wisconsin area, which tracks. It's perceived as a very midwestern expression, even if it's ubiquitous today.
Y’all: The English language once distinguished between singular “thou/thee” and plural “ye/you” but lost these distinctions starting around the 16th cent. or so. It turns out, however, that it’s useful to have separate singular and plural pronouns in the second person. Different dialects have come up with different solutions: In Brooklyn, it’s “youze.” In Pittsburgh, it’s “y’inz.” In the Midwest, it’s “you guys.” In the South, it’s “y’all,” and for emphasis, it’s “ALL y’all.”
And "y'inz" has its roots in the Appalachian speech of West Virginia (since so many in Western PA hail from W. Va.): it's a contraction of "you'uns, which is a further contraction of "you young ones." "Young'uns" to "you'uns" to "Y'inz.". Or y'all. Fun with American dialects! :)
John Hancock is actually the one that stated he was going to put his signature on in huge handwriting so that everyone in King George could see it very easily. It’s the biggest signature in the center of the document and it is the easiest to see!
In English, the second person plural pronoun is the same as the second person singular pronoun, "you." This can create confusion in speech, so various different words have developed to serve as the second person plural pronoun. In much of the US south, "y'all" is that second person plural. Around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the equivalent is "yinz." Other places have other substitutes, such as "you'ns" and others.
I'm from cali so we kinda just say "you guys" like a nonbinary term to refer to a group of people, but i try to say "y'all" more often so it's more inclusive :P
Broiling is cooking something (usually meat but not always) _under_ a close flame. On an oven, the broiler was traditionally a compartment underneath the main oven, so the food would be cooked from above.
In reference to the sophomore phrase, the same is the case for American high school. Additionally, 'freshman' can be used to mean a newly incoming politician. (e.g., a freshman representative.) Sophomore can also mean the second of something like an artist's second album. It's a very limited use of the word though; it's not an exact synonym of the word 'second'.
Sophomore is the abbreviation of "sophisticated moron" which would be offensive to some these days. But the implication is that second year students think they have some wisdom, but they really are 'sophisticated.... "
Freshman, sophomore, junior and senior are also used to denote a hierarchy in the student body. The terms are used in American High Schools as well as Universities
And in the universities the designation reflects the number of credits that have been completed. A person could be finished with their first year, but if they didn’t complete enough credits (they were going part time or dropped or flunked classes) they would still technically be a freshman. Our university considered 12 credits a semester as full-time but you’d actually need to complete 32 credits per year to move up to the next rank. I don’t remember if high school cared about the number of units completed per year but you needed to have completed the required courses and a certain amount of units to graduate.
Having been a member of a rugby club in the US for many years, I've had the good fortune of playing the game with and befriending English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis. The idioms from each can be very entertaining. One that the non-Americans found amusing was the expression "shagging flies". It is to practice catching fly balls in the sport of baseball. With "shag" having a COMPLETELY different meaning across the pond it certainly led to some raised eyebrows.
"For the birds" The phrase was coined in the US military during World War II. The original phrase included a swear word, talking about birds pecking at horse manure for seeds. That's for the birds hit its peak in popularity around the 1960s. It was used more often within the United States.
Opposite of "New York Minute" is "in Army Time" where you "hurry up and wait". Or also "Hawaii Time" means can't be rushed, it will happen when it is supposed to happen.
Here in the South, we sometimes say, "All y'all." It generally means more people than just y'all ... so everybody in a particular situation. For example, when addressing a few people at a large table in a restaurant, "So y'all want the pulled pork? Oh, all y'all want that?" as in everybody at the table does.
PS. A university is a collection of colleges. You go to the university of Illinois but you are in the college of engineering or liberal arts or business. As opposed to going to Augustana College which is a liberal arts school entirely.
The idea is that after someone has had one year of experience, whether in high school or college, they think they know it all. But they still have a lot to learn.
Fun fact: there were two idioms that are connected to phrases or regional words in Germany. We also say "Knock on wood" for pretty much the same situation. And famously, a grilled chicken is called a "broiler" in Eastern Germany.
I take a bit of an exception for the broiled = grilled. "Broiled" usually inside oven ov a rack or sheet. Grilled usually in a pan, such as s black wrought iron pan on top of the oven.
The term broil is referenced in Alice through the Looking Glass, which starts with the words "'Twas brillig" which is explained as meaning the time of day when you start broiling things for dinner. So it was in common UK usage in Victorian times. People do use knock on wood here, and if no actual wood is available will tap their own heads.
@@aspenrebel In the US, a grill is a cooking surface with parallel metal bars -- a gridiron. To grill usually means to cook on a gridiron (even though grilled cheese is cooked in a pan or griddle). Broiling is more general, referring to any cooking by high, dry heat.
At my high school frosh was a word used to describe athletic teams composed of freshman and sophomores. It referred to the mixed group, not freshman exclusively.
Another alternative term for freshman used in college sports is "red shirt". This stems from eligibility rules that results in most freshman being officially on the team, but not played in games their first year so that they can learn the game better, be on the team longer, and get an extra year of scholarship.
@@nooneyouknowhere6148 Yeah I believe fish for freshman has to do with the "fish in the pond" expressions. A senior in high school is the "big fish in the small pond" they know everything about the school and everyone knows them. A freshman at college is back to the "small fish in a big pond" as they're starting anew.
Most idiomatic phrases would not be a problem for English speakers, problems would arise for people who don’t have English as their first language. When I was training people at work I avoided slang and idioms. It made life so much simpler.
In WWII, the Grumman F6 Hellcat fighter’s machine guns’ ammo belt had enough bullets to be nine yards long (2400 rounds, IIRC). So a pilot might go into a strafing run on a aircraft carrier (for example) and say, “I got it in my gunsights and _gave it the whole nine yards_ “ - shot his entire ammo load on it.
Sophomore: The Greek words σοφός (wise) and μωρός (fool) put together, "Sophos" and "Moronic". Sophomoric means that someone may have done a lot of reading and studying but lacks real-world experience and wisdom.
I’d liken it more to the Dunning-Kruger effect where someone has had some education and thinks they’re smart, but isn’t as smart as they think they are.
"Behind the 8-ball" means to be _in trouble or an awkward position, out of luck._ Example: _His check bounced, leaving Jim behind the eight ball with his landlord._ I found this explanation online, but it is accurate. I used it because it's worded well.
That broil v. grill distinction is interesting for two reasons. 1) In the US, grill implies cooking over an open flame, typically but not always outside on the barbeque. 2) We have a type of steak here called a London Broil. Presumably, that’s not what it’s called in London.
"knock on wood" is used by the British as "touch wood." It was so used in the film Master and Commander: The Other Side of the World. It's origin is in fact Celtic.
Freshman, sophomore, Jr, Sr are also used during the 4 years of high school, not just university. Also, African Americans will use "y'all" regardless of where they live. It's a part of their vernacular.
In UK (unless it has changed since I went to school) high school lasts either 5 years or 7 years, so we don't really have names for the particular years. A possible source of confusion is that the 6th form lasts 2 years, the lower 6th and the upper 6th.
@@TheJazzy1980 : That's exactly what I was gonna say! "Black people say y'all no matter where they live", is because almost all of them are from the South.
The whole nine yards is a term that came from the US military during World War II. The bullets for the machine gun came in 9 yd segments. Someone gave the whole nine yards when they unloaded everything on the target.
3:40 John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was not only the largest, but also the most elaborate. Signing the document was considered an act of treason against the king, so some signers may have been hesitant and left room for deniability by later claiming, "that's not my signature." However, John Hancock went to great lengths to ensure that his signature was unmistakably his and could not be disputed. So, putting your “John Hancock” on something is seen to be a serious action..
Native Alabamian here.. Y'all is an extremely common word in the everyday speach of Southern Americans.. and yes , when Northerners say it... It just doesn't sound right. Good video y'all. 😊Keep up the good work.
Broil is specifically to use the top heating element inside an oven, rather than the bottom heating element; it's hotter so it cooks quicker, plus it browns the top of food, so you get bubbly and browned nelted cheese on top of a casserole by broiling it for a few minutes after baking it most of the way through.
"In the ball park" & "threw them a curve ball" are both particularly American phrases, since they come from baseball. "In the ball park" means "in the vicinity, in the same general region," & not just physically speaking -- a numerical estimate is often called a "ball park figure" since it's supposed to be a number that's "in the ball park" of the exact figure. "Throwing someone a curve ball" is springing something unexpectedly on someone -- another baseball expression for something unexpected would be that something "came out of left field". The Oxford English dictionary dates the use of "the whole nine yards" to 1855, & apparently "the whole six yards" was used earlier still, but it's not clear if it's talking about yards of ground or yards of fabric or yards of rope or yards of distance or what. We also have "the whole ball of wax", "the whole enchilada", & "the whole shebang" which all mean exactly the same thing as "the whole nine yards". "For the birds" apparently comes from WWII US military slang -- due to birds being observed pecking seeds out of horse manure, anything third rate or useless was called "sh*t for the birds", which was subsequently cleaned up to be "it's for the birds". Now *I* want to know about the origins of the Northern English expression "trouble at t'mill"!
The commonly considered origin for "the whole nine yards" refers to the supposed length of ammo belts carried in a WWII fighter plane's wings. So, "I gave him the whole nine yards" meant the pilot shot all his ammo at one target.
"Trouble at t'mill" means there's a big, usually on-going problem. It comes from the industrial revolution when whole towns (especially in Yorkshire and Lancashire) were reliant on the employment at a mill (e.g. for the manufacture of fabrics). As problems on which a whole area depended on were far-reaching, "trouble at t'mill" was very serious. When it wasn't literally true because there was problems at a factory, it became a somewhat humerous phrase. I recommend watching the British comedy drama of "Brass" (ITV & Channel 4, 1983-1990) which illustrates it perfectly.
@@lancerevell5979 - that usage may have contributed to its popularity, but the phrase was in use long before aviation. One of the earliest usages referred to a seamstress who had been given nine yards of cloth, ordinarily enough for three shirts, and used the whole nine yards to make one - presumably rather fancy - shirt.
If you told an American you were going to "grill this chicken", they would assume you were going to cook it on either an outdoor grill, like a propane or charcoal grill (what Brits would call a barbecue) or an indoor gas grill (the same thing but with a vent hood over it for grilling without going outside).
On the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock was the first signer and his signature is the largest. Supposedly, he said that he wanted King George to be able to read it without his spectacles..
Do you and the whole 9 yards that is definitely a popular reference in my generation again I'm 56 years old. That basically means that you have committed to some thing you started it and you are going to finish it no matter what.
Important context about the phase "Monday Morning Quarterback": The quarterback is the leader of the team, and the games are traditionally played on Sunday.
Yeah, it's more-than-likely that he did his due diligence before filming. He's a pro; been at this for enough years, he's not terribly likely to get caught unawares.😉
"The Whole Nine Yards" comes from WWII, the American troops would feed nine yards of ammo into their anti-personnel guns, so if you shot everything you had at someone, you gave them "The Whole Nine Yards."
Years ago, I remember reading the etymology for the phrase, "for the birds" as being from when horses were our primary means of transport. When a horse would need to do its business, it would do so anywhere in the street, and the birds would flock to the ... Business ... to consume whatever they could (kernels, etc). Therefore, saying "It's For The Birds" is a polite way of saying, "That's Horse $hit"! I really hope that it's true, because I LOVE that explanation! 😂
Very interesting and entertaining. In German 'Knock on wood' exists completely the same, 'for the birds' is like 'for the fishes' (colloquial Austrian German), 'broiler' seems to have french roots and has been adopted by East Germans for grilled chicken iirc
As a youngster in the Northeast, my mother would warn that we should not eat the last pieces of bread from a particular package because they were stale and she was keeping them for the birds. She tear them up and scatter them in the yard and watch the birds come by to pick them up. This bread was inferior for our consumption. I think this is how "for the birds" got it's meaning. Something so inferior that it's not fit for anyone's attention.
The whole nine yards came from WWII. When pilots would return from mission they would say "I gave then the whole nine yards". The ammunition belt from each gun was 27 feet long or 9 yards, so if they fired every bullet to do everything they could do, it was the whole nine yards!
The sophomore thing is also used other context as well. I've mostly heard it when talking about music artists, referring to their second album as their "sophomore" album. I also think I've heard the first album being called "freshman debut"
I was going to add “my two cents” and say something about John Hancock and about freshman / frosh - but I see that others have already weighed in on those topics.
When referring to high school/college (University) years, some are obvious. "Freshman", as a way to denote the newest and "Senior" to denote the oldest are pretty straight forward. Junior is a little odd, but essentially means 'younger than the seniors'. The really interesting name is Sophomore: This is thought to derive from folk use of two Greek terms, sophos, meaning “wise,” and moros, meaning “foolish, dull,”. Sophomore originally probably meant a wise moron! I think this is applied to 2nd year students as many THINK they are now experienced, but they still have a lot to learn. This term dates back to the 1650s.
There are several origins that I've heard for "the whole nine yards," but the one I give the most credence to is that upper-class women would buy cloth for clothing for themselves and their families, usually in nine-yard bolts. They would then give the cloth to their servants who made their clothes (or, in some cases, to a piece-work clothesmaker) and specify what they wanted made from it. Because these lower-class tradesmen and women had the habit of keeping some of the cloth for themselves, to use to make their own clothes, they would often be braced to use "the whole nine yards" on the garments they were being told to make. In that version of the saying, it has the meaning of "going all in" on a goal, without necessarily considering your own needs first. So, when you give it your all, with no concern for yourself, you're going "the whole nine yards."
Personally, I'm partial to its origin being with early fighter planes. The ammunition belts for their machine guns were supposedly 9 yards long. Any fighter plane that returned from a sortie with no ammunition was said to have given the enemy "the whole nine yards".
If I recall correctly, “the whole nine yards” originated in the fabric industry. A bolt of fabric was nine-yards long. You buy by the yard. One yard, two yards, six yards, “the whole nine yards.” So, the phrase means “all of it.”
the expression ''the whole nine yards'' come from? The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of WW2 and since were in chains twenty-seven feet in length. Thus if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target he was said to have given his adversary 'the full nine yards'.
Not sure what a chain of amo is. But the 50 cal gun system of the P-51 Mustang had an amo belt that was exactly 27 feet, or 9 yards, in length when fully assembled. I carried a 100 round starter belt of 7.62mm amo for my m240B machine gun, while my assistant gunner carried up to 1000 rounds. We never measured the legth.
The whole nine yards stems from the length of a string of ammunition in world war 2 aircraft. When a pilot unloaded his entire string of ammunition into another aircraft, he gave the other pilotthe whole nine yards.
I"m a southern lady I'm going to teach our British friends 2 phrases we use down here that is used alot (in my region at least) 1st is "Over Yonder" Ok, in the town you live for example, you know where the favorite pub is, your family does, friends does,etc. But someone who isn't from your area doesn't. You're giving directions to them to this pub, as a local here we say "oh that's "over yonder" (like over the hill, across the street, past the stop sign) of course the person your giving directions to has no clue where "over yonder " is ,this isn't very helpful, but it's a habit in the south of the local community of knowing a precise location. 2nd is "Bless your heart" This is a split phase that has 2 different meanings, listen to the tone of voice of how a southern applies it to you. If we express it in kind understanding manner it's a expression of "I'm sorry you went threw that. Or you deserve better than what you got" If it's expressed in scoffing manner or laughing manner , it's a sorta polite way to say " you're not very intelligent are you" Now you're somewhat prepared for southern traditions.😅
In (northern) Britain we have a saying "it's a bit black over Bill's mother's" which means "it looks like there's a storm coming over yonder". Us old folk have many ways of saying an undefined distance in a general direction - "thataways", "it be a tidy step", "over the next hill", "down the road", "if you see the pub, you've gone too far", etc. We use "bless your cotton socks" in much the same way you say "bless your heart", though it's more patronising than a genuine sentiment.
One phrase that I've noticed confusion from foreigners about was "What's happening?" It's a standard non-specific greeting but people not from the US think it refers to something specific.
Those in the US who were alive in the 80s will recognize "What's happening?" as a non-specific greeting. We even had a television show called What's Happening!! in the 80s. Awesome show!
Maybe it’s generational? Older people in the USA know it’s non-specific. Generally, the answer to What’s happening? is It’s all good, you? or Not much, you? No one needs a verbal blow-by-blow of your day/week/year. What’s happening? became noticed in the Southern US, the Caribbean, and the UK in the 1950s. Took off in the ‘70s (I think because of Jesus Christ Superstar), and then there was the sit-com. My $0.2.
Monday morning quarterback: It is a reference to Sunday night football. It means to give an opinion after the fact. It is like telling someone who has already played the game what should have been done during the game the night before.
One of the few things I really enjoy about the south, is that I get to use triple and even sometimes quadruple contractions. For example, shouldn’t’ve, i’dn’t, ain’t’ve, etc. in that vein you get the idea. They’re very fun to whip out in text form bc most ppl I know don’t notice them auditorally
I remember getting puzzled by the phrase "ballpark" when used for estimating and guesses, which wasn't something that was used abroad as an expression, and if taking the term literally then we don't have a "ballpark" anywhere else. Fortunately I've watched enough Hollywood films and travelled a bit enough to figure out what this meant when I first heard that phrase.
The adjective, ballpark, comes from the phrase "in the ballpark" which comes from the game of baseball. A ball hit in the ballpark is playable, so it is reasonably close and manageable. A ball hit out of the ballpark is not playable. It is designated a home run, with all runners scoring.
I once had to do an experiment in quantitative chemistry. My results were all over the place. But on average, statistically they were "in the ballpark " and I reported that to my professor. His response was that they were in the bleachers on the 3rd baseline. So so I wasn't even close. Failed that one, oh well.
@@jmatt56 - I don’t think getting the average “in the ballpark” counts. That would be like hitting a foul ball to the left, then another to the right, and claiming that on the average they were fair.
I'm from the US South. I heard the saying "a country mile" - meaning something isn't closeby or it takes a long time to do something. Anyway, I've always used the term "John Hancock" . As in: 'where do I sign my John Hancock" or "can you read my John Hancock"
In Spain we also say touch wood, and the meaning is the same. Instead of knocking, we touch the table with the index and pinky, like this 🤘, and if there's none around, we touch our own head
Y'all is definitely a regional thing. People in other parts of America will say You-All or You Guys. Just different ways of addressing multiple people at the same time, ie. 2nd Person Plural. In Texas and its environs, you'll also hear something of a greeting like "Howdy Y'All!" The "Howdy" is short for the ancient greeting "How do you do?"
Y'all has so many more versions that can make anyone learning American English cross their eyes. my favorite is all'y'all'd've, which roughly translates to "all of you all should have"
Apparently you've never read "Through the Looking Glass", since Humpty Dumpty, in explaining the strange words in Jabberwocky, says that "brillig" refers to the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
The whole nine yards (to give all you got) comes from WWII fighter aircraft, the ammo belts for the guns where nine yards long. Giving the whole nine yards was giving the other guy all the ammo you had.
![Lethal Company Music Video 🎵 "Follow The Orders" [VERSION A]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QeooZB4Z7RA/mqdefault.jpg)
Get your FREE UK vs USA vocabulary QUIZ right here - start.eatsleepdreamenglish.com/pl/2147608628
Actually, John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence with a very large, embellished signature, stating that he wanted King George to be able to read it without his spectacles. Since then, any such signature (and eventually, any signature) on a document has occasionally been referred to as a "John Hancock."
Yes, I think it’s a great little idiom & I always loved John Hancock’s signature on the Declaration of Independence….striking w/a flair for the dramatic!!👍
Just put your "John Hancock" there. Or .... your "JH".
John Hancock was the first President of the First Continental Congress (essentially, the chairman of the representatives chosen by the different colonies i.e. states to decide what to do about their issues with the British government). John Hancock was the last to affix his signature to the document of the Declaration of Independence, which he did in a flourish, probably because he had a healthy ego (he was the second-richest man in the American colonies).
😂I was screaming as she was “diving into her history knowledge.”
@@lgempet2869 So everyone can see it: www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Declaration-of-Independence-000009931570_Medium.jpg
I think it’s important to say you “plead the fifth” because answering the question truthfully would incriminate you. It’s not just not wanting to answer a question. It’s not wanting to answer because you would reveal something about yourself.
Yes. In court you’d use it if answering would basically be confessing a crime or at least making you look very suspicious. In colloquial usage it’s a way of saying “I know better than answer that question.”, “I’m not getting involved in that discussion.”, or just “I’m not saying anything.”
And there is a difference between its use in criminal and civil proceedings. In a civil proceeding, if you plead the fifth, the jury can draw adverse inference from you pleading it. That is, they can infer that you did something wrong because you chose not to incriminate yourself. The jury can't do this in a criminal proceeding.
Like Dump!
And if your answer had anything not demonstrateably truthful you could get charged with perjury.
Under the Fifth Amendment, the right to not answer a question can not be used as a sign of quilt.
Actually hilariously in rural America and the South the phrase "it'll take a minute" actually means something that will take a long time.
Similarly, if you haven't seen someone in a long, long time, you might say "hey Fred, it's been a minute!"
@@ArtofFreeSpeech Agreed; most I know use it thusly, as well. (I'm in California)
There's also "It's been a hot minute" which means it's been a long time...
@@davarrashayde that's pretty much the same. It just in some cultural context you can omit the hot
“Bang for your buck” doesn’t just mean a good deal - most often it carries with it the word “more” in a comparative sense, as in: you have $50 to spend and you could go to Nordstrom, but decide to go to Fred Meyer because it’s less expensive and you could get 2 pairs of jeans (or whatever) v. the 1 you could only get at Nordstrom because each pair costs more. You get more bang for your buck: more items for the money you spent. Also: many ppl say “frosh” for freshman. Unimpressed with the John Hancock and plead the fifth segments.
The American distinction between "broil" and "grill": When you GRILL, there is a heat source BELOW an item which is on a grillwork cooking the item. When you BROIL, there is a heatsource which is overhead (only) cooking the item, whether it is on a grillwork or in a pan.
oh yeah, was really weird to see Broil in there, because we still Grill haha. I personally broil things in an oven to give them a nice brown, crispy top, but they are already cooked anyway
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side.
In a oven we grill from the top
Out side we use a bbq or a grill
@@grahamlowe314 Which brings up another distinction here in the US. Grilling food and barbecuing food are different. Grilling means high heat from below and a short cooking time, usually uncovered. Barbecuing is slow heat over a long period of time and is done in an enclosed unit. Most people own something that can do both but restaurants and professionals use separate equipment. Many barbecues look like old oil drums sliced in half from top to bottom and put on their side. In other words, you grill a steak or burger but barbecue a brisket or ribs.
You might also use broil to describe a bad sunburn. Broiling in the sun.
@@hectorsmommy1717
Now in the English speaking world all what you have described is grilling meat. We understand the difference between grilling meat in a house or outside . We also have bbq with covers and know how to cook fast or slow with them .Remember it’s the English language
The expression "Monday morning quarterback" also refers to the fact that most American professional football games are played on Sunday.
I think that’s closer to the real meaning like she said “saying something that already happened” it’s like a quarter back being late Sunday and showing up Monday so sort of being late to the party of saying something
I’ve actually never heard this expression before (Mon morning quarterback “).
@@DogeDragone right. But the reason the phrase refers to Monday morning is that most football games happen on Sunday. That context is needed to know that Monday morning is referring to after an event has already happened.
I more refers to the people that talk about what should have happened during the game. With the benefit of hindsight. Very similar to armchair quarterback
@@flyingwombatazazz6736, similar but not quite the same, an armchair quarterback is slightly different in that an armchair quarterback. An armchair quarterback is often suggesting alternative methods either while or even before the person who is actually responsible for making the call is making them, they often will not be effected by the results of their suggestions or have their idea effect what is going on, they are also often less informed suggestions than a better informed person would be making. A Monday morning quarterback is being criticized for making what they consider the better call after the fact (though clearly it may not be) whereas the armchair quarterback is being criticized for making them while the decision making is going on, either with irritation because their ideas are unwanted or of lower quality than those who are actually making the decisions or has no effect one way or the other on the decision being made in the moment.
"Freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior" often applies to the highschool years too.
Those people in the UK refer to the junior and senior years of what we call high school (secondary education) as "sixth form," specifically "lower sixth form" and "upper sixth form." (That is, if I am not mistaken.)
Its honestly more relevant in High School than college. Also in college, these are official terms based on the number of hours completed rather than years completed. Often you have to be a Junior before you can take 300+ level classes - though I think this is a rule was removed.
Also at one time Freshman was abbreviated to Frosh. He's only a Frosh.
Quits skoo joins a gang den stab dem peeps .
Dey gotz ta know who run shit .
In the US, I’ve always used it for both. In high school, you can use grade number and Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior. In college/university, I’ve only ever heard Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior. BUT, I’m 46, that should have changed since I graduated.
The original concept behind "knock on wood' was that evil spirits listen to our talking and if you speak of some misfortune you haven't experienced, it gives them an idea how to hurt you. You knock on wood to invoke good spirits, nature spirits, to ward off the evil spirits from carrying out the specific misfortune you mentioned.
I've always heard that wood (as in trees) was specifically used because the vibrations would carry down into the roots, scaring the spirits away. Similar to ringing a bell.
Travis has part of it, but the whole story includes the superstition that a dryad or other fey creature lived inside the tree you were about to chop down, so you knocked on wood to wake it and warn it, so it wouldn't bounce the axe head back into your leg and confer a life-threatening chop.
@@rossanderson4440 see, that's fascinating. I've not heard that version, but it makes sense the further you go.
Yes, I think Travis and Ross pretty much have the superstition correct. I think that this custom and belief actually originated with the Germanic tribes in the early Middle Ages, who had many woodland spirits.
I could've sworn that was a tradition inherited from the British which is why I'm surprised it's still not a superstition that bad spirits lurk in wood
The opposite of a "New York minute" in American English is "island time", "island" referring to the Hawaii Islands, were the pace of life is much slower. I was actually in Hawaii a few months ago, and I almost missed my flight home because the airport security guards were taking their sweet time in scanning the luggages, lol.
In the South, the opposite of a "NewYork minute" is often stated as "slow as molasses."
Or Caribbean islands
In South Africa African time means when somebody dosesn't stick to an agreed time schedule, they come in late.
How about "slow as molasses in January"
@@gulfgal98 oh, i hasn't had that in awhile. Im in VA and it seems like we got a mix of southern and our own thing going.
Wait, just caught that "own thing going" is that southern or?
I have heard two origins for the whole nine yards. One refers to the length of belt fed ammo in fighter planes during WW2. So if you give it the whole nine yards, you gave it everything you had. Also, and I believe this one is the original, it could refer to square rigged sailing ships. Sails were called yards. For a time, three masted ships could have three yards on each mast. So giving it the whole 9 yards means you have all of the sails up and in the wind. You gave it your all.
I was wondering about that
The sailing one reminds me of being three sheets to the wind during a pub crawl.... 😆
Thanks - I always thought it described rushing in football but it always means giving your all against a tough odds
I like the idea of dealing thirty cal. Rounds of hot ass lead to to nazis so im gonna go with that firsfi.dint fault me for it
I wonder how much fabric comes on a bolt. That was my thought.
Important points missed
Monday morning quarterback, traditionally all American football games were on Sunday so Monday morning at work everyone is discussing the games with would've should've could've.
John Hancock on Declaration of Independence his is the largest signature, rumors are that he wanted King George to be able to see it.
Similar to the Monday morning quarterback is the armchair quarterback. The armchair quarterback watches all the football games from his armchair and thinks he knows what everybody should do, even though he may never have even played the game. It also refers to someone who acts like they know everything about a situation, when he really isn't even involved.
In UK we would probably say something like "Hindsight is a wonderful thing" but using a sarcastic tone of voice.
@@Phiyedough Not so much an everyday idiom as an adage, but we do say "Hindsight is 20/20"
Could it be same as "general after battle"?
Not native English speaker here.
@@sabkobds - Exactly.
John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence and his signature is very prominent (i.e., BIG) in relation to the other founding fathers' signatures. He wanted to make a statement by doing so rather just give his endorsement. Colloquially, "Give me your John Hancock." just means the same thing as "Sign here."
Yes. He signed it large enough, he said, so that King George could read it without his glasses!
It was primarily an act of defiance, since they knew that if their effort failed, they would probably be hunted down and executed for treason, so yeah, might as well sign big.
Even ostensibly educated Yanks (like me) sometimes stumble when referring to the Declaration of Independence vs. the Constitution.
*Fun fact* both have an introductory statement. Only one is titled Preamble.
I heard about an English lady who hadn't been in America very long. She was grocery shopping, and she found a couple of store employees and asked where she could find the ice lollies. They had no idea what she was talking about, but trying to be helpful, they suggested that she look in the bakery.
Ice lollies are what we usually call popsicles.
@Micah There are frozen ice cream cakes, so I could see the misunderstanding.
@@steveaustin2686 I was thinking along those same lines, but I thought that when they heard the word ice, they thought of icing and that made them think of cake.
@@pamshort4590 That is a good point as well.
Makes since.
Broiling is the cooking technique that uses radiant heat from above to cook your food, so it's like upside-down grilling.
In UK we would call that grilling but the distinction has become blurred since the barbecue gained popularity.
Exactly.
@@Phiyedough grilling in the US is to cook from below with heat (usually flame) passing through a grating that holds the item being grilled. Broiling is heat from above, even the sun will broil you.
I always thought until recently that the Broiler on my oven was a place to store pans.
@@Phiyedough That’s because you misunderstand what barbecue is. Cooking for a short time on a grate over direct, dry, high heat from charcoal, a gas flame or similar is grilling. It is not barbecue. Barbecue involves a lengthy (hours long) cook over low, indirect heat and smoke, with careful control of humidity in the cooking vessel, or barbecue pit. Barbecue involves planning and a significant time commitment. You can’t, e.g., spontaneously invite coworkers to your place for a barbecue after work unless you are planning to eat well past midnight or even late the next day. Throwing a few burgers and sausages on a grill is not barbecue.
Behind the Eight Ball: it’s not just a disadvantage. It means you have been put in a difficult position that will be hard to get out of.
...but that is saying the same thing. A disadvantage is just a situation that will be more difficult to accomplish.
@@josiahferrell5022 as I said, it’s not JUST a disadvantage. It’s a particular kind of disadvantage.
@@aramiscalcutt You're thinking "snookered" which is brit slang for thwarted
AKA between a rock and a hard place.
@@mikeevans4585 being behind the eight ball is in the cue ball is his hind the eight ball, so the eight ball will be hit no matter what one of the players on balls he goes for. It’s not just a disability because it’s something that your opponent deliberately tries to do to you so that you have to waste your turn without hitting any balls, which is home table, scratch and allows them to pick up the cue ball behind the shooting line when used correctly, it means either that you’re at the severe disadvantage you can’t keep your balls and they get to place the queue wherever they want or that someone need a dick move that with you and disadvantage and it wasn’t just a turn of luck that put you there
Broiling is actually *not* the same as grilling. Grilling involves heating from below, often with an open flame (or heat source generally--see "grilled cheese"), while broil is an oven setting providing intense radiant heat from above. Top tip: if your pizza's thoroughly cooked but lacks browning on the top, set the oven to broil and check after 1 minute, then every 30 seconds after that until it's got the doneness you want. You'll have your beautiful pizza ready within 2-3 minutes, maximum!
Yes that’s absolutely correct; I came here to say the same. 😊
you missed their point. they call broiling in the uk grilling. so what we call broiling they call grilling.
The College years also apply to High school, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior!
i was thinking about this when they asked about "Freshie". When my daughter was in high school she definitely called the Freshman "Freshies" - at least the ones in band!
In pool, if you're playing the game of 8-ball, the 8-ball is the last ball for you to put in, after all the solid colors or all the stripes (whichever group you are trying to sink). If you have a shot you would like to take, but the 8-ball is blocking the pocket you would use to sink some other ball, you're said to be "behind the 8-ball." This has been generalized to mean that when you're "behind the 8-ball" you're being blocked from doing something you desire or need to do.
More precisely, you are in a bad situation from which there is there is no way out.
and you are not allowed to hit the eight ball first. So if you’re behind the eight ball, you’re in a really difficult situation to make a good shot.
The familiar British equivalent would be “snookered”, which also means to be placed in a difficult position in billiards, just a different game than Eight Ball.
A grill cooks something on the bottom.
A broiler cooks something on the top. The grill touches the food, the broiler doesn’t touch it and thus isn’t a grill.
Freshman-Senior also applies to High School, for each year of 9th-12th grade.
Note that in the US we also have the derogatory adjective "sophomoric", meaning pretentious but immature.
"Sophomore" is a combination of Greek root words- "Soph" meaning wise, and "More" meaning foolish. Carries a connotation of someone with some knowledge, yet still a fool in other ways.
Yeah, I thought about that too.
It's also common to refer to a band's second album as their sophomore album, which is often not regarded as well as their first album.
@@rhymeswithorange6092 ❤ this
say it louder for the people in the back!
@@NathanMN The sophomore slump
I believe the "Whole nine yards" phrase had to do with cloth or material for sewing. If I remember correctly, a bolt of cloth is nine square yards. So if you needed a lot of fabric, you might say something like, "Oh, I like this material, I'll take the whole nine yards."
Actually Give them the whole nine yards got it's start from WWII fighter pilots The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of WWII were in chains twenty-seven feet in length (9 yards) Thus if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target he was said to have given his adversary 'the full nine yards'. ....So in short the whole nine yards means give it everything you have to give and hold nothing back....
@@jrthmc29 I knew I wouldn't have to type all that, you did it for me. I believe that was the maximum amount the ammo 'container' held for that weapon. must have been reasonably heavy.
Oh wow! I just learned something. I also thought it had to do with fabric.
@@GregBrownsWorldORacing Very heavy! And it was common to have three Browning M2 50 cal machine guns in each wing, so the whole nine yards was really 54 yards.
@@jrthmc29 That`s what I thought!
This is what I have heard. "The whole nine yards" originated (I believe) from the WWII 'Flying Tigers' in China. The Curtiss P-40 fighter plane had belt-fed machine guns that had bullet-carrying belts that were nine yards long. If a pilot shot all nine yards at a Japanese airplane, he could say "I gave him the whole nine yards!" meaning, I shot everything I had at the enemy plane. In modern usage, it roughly means: "everything", or "I gave it all I could."
Very well said ! The belts were 27 feet long thus nine yards, you know the rest.
@@CannaMike420 "The rest" is the fact that I'm related to Glenn Curtiss. Whoooo Hoooooo!! 😁
I always thought it had something to do with American football 😅
You are correct
I’ve known this was related to a machine gun belt, but never with the Curtiss P-40 detail. Thanks for “the rest of the story.”
4:31 We do have the similar term "country mile" to refer to a long, undefined distance. The idea being that rural people greatly underestimate (or understate) distances, since everything is farther apart out in the country, ergo what feels like only one mile to them might in actuality be more like two miles.
...or ten, or a hundred.
Exactly what I thought of too!
But you’d never use a NY minute to describe distance
I just saw this post after I posted mine.
@Tim Bell That's because the phrase is metaphorical for a measure of TIME rather than distance. But I get what you mean.
3:35 Come on, history teacher. John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence with a giant signature.
The British version of "behind the eight ball" is "snookered." The whole nine yards comes from cutting cloth, as long ago cloth came in 9 yard bolts, so to go the whole nine yards meant getting it all.
Behind the eight ball also means you're in trouble.
I had heard that "the whole nine yards" came from wwII, when the ammo belts for the machineguns in US fighters were 27 ft long, so if you came back to base without any bullets left you had given the enemy the whole 9 yards
John Hancock was President of the US Congress! He signed the Declaration of Independence the other 55 signed later! He had the biggest signature on it.
A Yd is 3’ (ft) or 36” (in) The whole 9 Yds is the amount of length of .50 caliber ammunition belt in the box. 27 Feet of bullets in the belt of ammunition.
I thought it was a reference to American football. Learn something new every day!
For John Hancock, it should also be mentioned that his signature on the Declaration of Independence is very outsized compared to all the other signatures.
Sounds like he was compensating with a big John Hancock.
John Hancock famously made his signature larger than the others and allegedly said that he wrote it large enough for King George to see from Philadelphia (or wherever it was signed)
There are 2 other phrases that are used in the states, primarily in the south. The first one has 2 variations: hold your horses, or hold your damn horses. Both mean to slow down, though 2nd variation is a bit more blunt. The other phrase, which is basically the kiss of death in the south is "bless your heart". You are basically telling someone to piss off cause your mad at them for a set reason. However, you also need to understand the context of how the phrase 'bless your heart' is being used, along with the tone of voice being used by the one saying it.
For about 12 years I worked in the Boston office of a British publishing company. One word I ran across that confused the Brits on the team was “Druthers”. It came up in some discussion; my British boss asked for opinions. I said “If I had my druthers we’d ...”. My response left the Brits on the team furrowing their brows. It basically means “choices”, as in “if the choices were mine”. I’ve understood it comes from a contraction of “I’d rather” and it seems it was popularized by Mark Twain.
I use the expression d'ruthers still ) likely from Mother. Yes to the above, it seems to be a vulgarization of "I'd rather, x or y, if I had my d'ruthers.
In some of the many dialects of Southern American English in the 19th Century, “rather” was pronounced as closer to “ruther”. So “I’d rather” sounded like “I’d ruther” or “I druther” and the expression stuck.
"For the birds" is another idiom involved with farming, particularly wheat. When the wheat is separated from the chaff, the chaff is then considered useful only to the birds, which will glean through it for any missed kernels. When a field is harvested, usually flocks of birds follow looking for small bits of edible bits, regardless of what is being harvested.
That actually makes far more sense than the explanation I've heard about it being a more vulgar WWII U.S. Army phrase (that's s*** for the birds) regarding birds pecking through horse droppings for seeds.
I was thinking something similar, but suspect it had more to do with poultry livestock rather than wild birds. People with chickens will give them bread that is stale, trimmings from the vegetables the humans eat, grain that has gotten infested with bugs, etc.
"for the birds" means "below a man's standard."
Most sources would disagree with you,
In the US, you're also a Freshman in the first year of high school, and high schools use Sophomore, Junior, and Senior as well. We usually don't reduce it to anything (that's much more of a British trait with words and phrases).
Well, we do say “frosh” instead of “freshman”, but as for the rest, I can’t think of a shortened version.
@@Gidgetxf never heard that - maybe regional
Sophomoric also means not the best or immature.
In my Highschool older students would teas the freshmen by calling them fish.
@@EccentricAuntWanda1 We used frosh here in the Midwest but that was many, many years ago! Sophomoric is still used on occation!
"Pleading the Fifth" is actually on the "grounds it may incriminate" you. That last part is important.
Fifth Amendment protects you from self-incrimination, so when your mum asks if you ate the last cookie (biscuit?), you might plead the fifth.
"Hawaiian Time" is pretty much the opposite of a New York Minute. In Hawaii, a party invite that says 7 pm means most folks show up at 8:30 pm.
I've heard "Island Time" which would encompass folks from the greater Pacific island region. Guess they are more laid back 8^)
Same is true of Florida. Specifically if you're at one of the vacation islands (like St. George), they also run on "island time" with similar meaning.
1:16 - She forgot to mention that NFL games are typically played on Sundays, that why "Monday Morning QB" is all about himdsight
In German we have the same phrase "knock on wood" : Klopf auf Holz....We are also supposed to find something wooden, sometimes jokingly knock our own heads😉
Same in the States.
I think it might be because so many people immigrated from Germany. Both sides of my dad's family did. My mother's family were from the UK and Native American.
Yes, in USA we also knock on our heads as a joke for knocking on wood 😅
@@michelehenne2477 I think so too. My mother's side came from Germany
This would suggest that the English phrase originates from German immigrants around the Wisconsin area, which tracks. It's perceived as a very midwestern expression, even if it's ubiquitous today.
Y’all: The English language once distinguished between singular “thou/thee” and plural “ye/you” but lost these distinctions starting around the 16th cent. or so. It turns out, however, that it’s useful to have separate singular and plural pronouns in the second person. Different dialects have come up with different solutions: In Brooklyn, it’s “youze.” In Pittsburgh, it’s “y’inz.” In the Midwest, it’s “you guys.” In the South, it’s “y’all,” and for emphasis, it’s “ALL y’all.”
And "y'inz" has its roots in the Appalachian speech of West Virginia (since so many in Western PA hail from W. Va.): it's a contraction of "you'uns, which is a further contraction of "you young ones." "Young'uns" to "you'uns" to "Y'inz.". Or y'all. Fun with American dialects! :)
I mainly hear you guys on the West Coast. I say you guys. I moved to the Midwest and hear most people saying y’all.
You guys is used in England, too. I just heard it on episode 2 of the current series of The Bay, which takes place in Morecambe.
In the St Louis area it is "Youse guys"
A true southerner would never say all y’all, it’s redundant. We also wouldn’t say y’all in regards to one person. It is plural.
John Hancock is actually the one that stated he was going to put his signature on in huge handwriting so that everyone in King George could see it very easily. It’s the biggest signature in the center of the document and it is the easiest to see!
Conversely, Button Guinette signed his signature exceedingly small so if the Revolution failed, the British might not notice it.
In the South, we have a lot of colloquialisms. One of the most common is "I'm fixin' to" which means I am getting ready to do something.
I've also heard "fitna" as in "She's fitna leave for work" .
They say that in the north as well.
Don't forget bless your heart lol
@@t0dd000 what part? I know in VA we may say"hey, Im gonna go to the store" but I don't know if that really counts.
@@PatientPerspective Midwest you hear it all a lot because a lot of us have southern roots😉 Bless y'all's hearts🤗
In English, the second person plural pronoun is the same as the second person singular pronoun, "you." This can create confusion in speech, so various different words have developed to serve as the second person plural pronoun. In much of the US south, "y'all" is that second person plural. Around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the equivalent is "yinz." Other places have other substitutes, such as "you'ns" and others.
Yes, Pittsburgh is famous for 'yinz'.
Pittsburgh has possibly the most distinct regional accent in the US
And in NYC area it's youse pronounced use, as in youse guys
English used to have different second person pronouns, "thou" was singular and "ye" was plural. "Y'all" actually comes from "ye-all."
I'm from cali so we kinda just say "you guys" like a nonbinary term to refer to a group of people, but i try to say "y'all" more often so it's more inclusive :P
Broiling is cooking something (usually meat but not always) _under_ a close flame. On an oven, the broiler was traditionally a compartment underneath the main oven, so the food would be cooked from above.
In reference to the sophomore phrase, the same is the case for American high school. Additionally, 'freshman' can be used to mean a newly incoming politician. (e.g., a freshman representative.)
Sophomore can also mean the second of something like an artist's second album. It's a very limited use of the word though; it's not an exact synonym of the word 'second'.
The word "sophomore" is derived from Greek words meaning "wise fool." By the time students are sophomores, they think they know it all.
I would’ve included that we also refer to Freshmen and Sophomores as underclassmen, while Juniors and Seniors are known as upperclassmen.
@@davidneman6527 Yes, hence calling something sophomoric when it's much less mature than the person thinks it is.
@@smoothALOE Good point!
Sophomore is the abbreviation of "sophisticated moron" which would be offensive to some these days. But the implication is that second year students think they have some wisdom, but they really are 'sophisticated.... "
Freshman, sophomore, junior and senior are also used to denote a hierarchy in the student body. The terms are used in American High Schools as well as Universities
And in the universities the designation reflects the number of credits that have been completed. A person could be finished with their first year, but if they didn’t complete enough credits (they were going part time or dropped or flunked classes) they would still technically be a freshman. Our university considered 12 credits a semester as full-time but you’d actually need to complete 32 credits per year to move up to the next rank. I don’t remember if high school cared about the number of units completed per year but you needed to have completed the required courses and a certain amount of units to graduate.
I love it that you make sure to make a use for each sentence! It makes a big difference. Thank you!
Having been a member of a rugby club in the US for many years, I've had the good fortune of playing the game with and befriending English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis. The idioms from each can be very entertaining. One that the non-Americans found amusing was the expression "shagging flies". It is to practice catching fly balls in the sport of baseball. With "shag" having a COMPLETELY different meaning across the pond it certainly led to some raised eyebrows.
We have the term "snagging flies here in the U.S. also, but it's used in baseball.
"For the birds"
The phrase was coined in the US military during World War II. The original phrase included a swear word, talking about birds pecking at horse manure for seeds. That's for the birds hit its peak in popularity around the 1960s. It was used more often within the United States.
Opposite of "New York Minute" is "in Army Time" where you "hurry up and wait". Or also "Hawaii Time" means can't be rushed, it will happen when it is supposed to happen.
Here in the South, we sometimes say, "All y'all." It generally means more people than just y'all ... so everybody in a particular situation. For example, when addressing a few people at a large table in a restaurant, "So y'all want the pulled pork? Oh, all y'all want that?" as in everybody at the table does.
PS. A university is a collection of colleges. You go to the university of Illinois but you are in the college of engineering or liberal arts or business. As opposed to going to Augustana College which is a liberal arts school entirely.
Yep.
Didn't realize pre-med was a liberal arts course. Learn something new everyday.
@@raphaelsolo it would be classified as a bachelor of science degree
@@raphaelsolo Tons of things are Liberal Arts that most people wouldn’t even think of.
New York Minute is also used when stating that you really like to do something. “Yes! I’d go to see La Traviata with you in a New York minute!”
Hi guys! Good video. Actually, sophomore is taken from two Greek words meaning " wise fool"
But in this context, it refers to the second year at college.
The idea is that after someone has had one year of experience, whether in high school or college, they think they know it all. But they still have a lot to learn.
The word "sophomoric" equates to stupidity.
“That speech our new boss just gave was rather “Sophomorish.”
Think "sophisticated moron" if you want to really get the etymology at a gut level.
Fun fact: there were two idioms that are connected to phrases or regional words in Germany. We also say "Knock on wood" for pretty much the same situation. And famously, a grilled chicken is called a "broiler" in Eastern Germany.
I'm from Chile, South America, and we also say "knock on wood." I'd say all latinos say it. Same meaning
I take a bit of an exception for the broiled = grilled. "Broiled" usually inside oven ov a rack or sheet. Grilled usually in a pan, such as s black wrought iron pan on top of the oven.
The term broil is referenced in Alice through the Looking Glass, which starts with the words "'Twas brillig" which is explained as meaning the time of day when you start broiling things for dinner. So it was in common UK usage in Victorian times.
People do use knock on wood here, and if no actual wood is available will tap their own heads.
@@aspenrebel In the US, a grill is a cooking surface with parallel metal bars -- a gridiron. To grill usually means to cook on a gridiron (even though grilled cheese is cooked in a pan or griddle). Broiling is more general, referring to any cooking by high, dry heat.
In the US, raw chickens are usually designated as fryers, roasters, or broilers -- indicating the recommended method of cooking the bird.
As an American I loved your guest Jesse, for bring so descriptively clear with her explanations. Awesome!
I’ve heard “frosh” used as a stand-in for freshman. Not super common in everyday usage, but used a lot when talking about college sports.
At my high school frosh was a word used to describe athletic teams composed of freshman and sophomores. It referred to the mixed group, not freshman exclusively.
Another alternative term for freshman used in college sports is "red shirt". This stems from eligibility rules that results in most freshman being officially on the team, but not played in games their first year so that they can learn the game better, be on the team longer, and get an extra year of scholarship.
Fish is used commonly to refer to a freshman
@@nooneyouknowhere6148 Yeah I believe fish for freshman has to do with the "fish in the pond" expressions. A senior in high school is the "big fish in the small pond" they know everything about the school and everyone knows them. A freshman at college is back to the "small fish in a big pond" as they're starting anew.
The only time I heard "frosh" was in the meme.
Most idiomatic phrases would not be a problem for English speakers, problems would arise for people who don’t have English as their first language. When I was training people at work I avoided slang and idioms. It made life so much simpler.
In the southern US we would say "all y'all" to make sure everyone is included.
In WWII, the Grumman F6 Hellcat fighter’s machine guns’ ammo belt had enough bullets to be nine yards long (2400 rounds, IIRC). So a pilot might go into a strafing run on a aircraft carrier (for example) and say, “I got it in my gunsights and _gave it the whole nine yards_ “ - shot his entire ammo load on it.
I have heard that each gunner on the bombers , b17 b24, in ww2 had nine yards of ammunition.
Thank you for explaining this as I didn’t want to have to do it myself lol.
Thank you! I’ve used that my whole life and didn’t know it’s origin❤️🐝🤗
I was gonna say this, but checked the comments just in case someone beat me to it! 😂 I’m quite surprised not many people know this
Interesting. I've heard many explanations for it but not that one. My favorite is that a full Highland great kilt is 9 yards.
Sophomore: The Greek words σοφός (wise) and μωρός (fool) put together, "Sophos" and "Moronic". Sophomoric means that someone may have done a lot of reading and studying but lacks real-world experience and wisdom.
I’d liken it more to the Dunning-Kruger effect where someone has had some education and thinks they’re smart, but isn’t as smart as they think they are.
I've met too many people like this. Book smart, but not a drop of common sense.
There's also the adjective sophomoric, which means juvenile and/or overconfident in one's knowledge and poorly informed.
@@amym.4823 those are the kind of people that introduced mansplaining. 😂
"Behind the 8-ball" means to be _in trouble or an awkward position, out of luck._
Example: _His check bounced, leaving Jim behind the eight ball with his landlord._
I found this explanation online, but it is accurate. I used it because it's worded well.
Tom hit the nail on the head with some of his examples.
That broil v. grill distinction is interesting for two reasons. 1) In the US, grill implies cooking over an open flame, typically but not always outside on the barbeque. 2) We have a type of steak here called a London Broil. Presumably, that’s not what it’s called in London.
Broil means cooking with high heat from the top only.
I was just wondering about London Broil, too.
The curious thing about the US is that for many of us below the Mason Dixon line,"barbecue"is a Verb!
Yes I was embarrassed (cringe)
Google Salamander Oven
I'm given to understand that "The whole 9 yards" came from WW2. The 50 cal ammo belts for American fighter planes were purportedly 9 yards long.
"knock on wood" is used by the British as "touch wood." It was so used in the film Master and Commander: The Other Side of the World. It's origin is in fact Celtic.
I wasn't sure if the British used that phrase. Thank you. I know that the Irish say, "Touch wood" and it means basically the same thing as in America
Freshman, sophomore, Jr, Sr are also used during the 4 years of high school, not just university.
Also, African Americans will use "y'all" regardless of where they live. It's a part of their vernacular.
True. I've definitely heard some people from non-southern states say "y'all", so it has spread from the South.
In UK (unless it has changed since I went to school) high school lasts either 5 years or 7 years, so we don't really have names for the particular years. A possible source of confusion is that the 6th form lasts 2 years, the lower 6th and the upper 6th.
I thought the same when she said that 😂
Black people from New York definitely say y'all!! 😂 which makes sense because we originated in the south.
@@TheJazzy1980 : That's exactly what I was gonna say! "Black people say y'all no matter where they live", is because almost all of them are from the South.
Ask this guy about the obsolete British Monarchy and about fish and chips.
He would give you a ton of answers.
The whole nine yards is a term that came from the US military during World War II. The bullets for the machine gun came in 9 yd segments. Someone gave the whole nine yards when they unloaded everything on the target.
3:40 John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was not only the largest, but also the most elaborate. Signing the document was considered an act of treason against the king, so some signers may have been hesitant and left room for deniability by later claiming, "that's not my signature." However, John Hancock went to great lengths to ensure that his signature was unmistakably his and could not be disputed. So, putting your “John Hancock” on something is seen to be a serious action..
Native Alabamian here.. Y'all is an extremely common word in the everyday speach of Southern Americans.. and yes , when Northerners say it... It just doesn't sound right. Good video y'all. 😊Keep up the good work.
My son born in Indiana to a Texas mom and Tennessee dad. You better believe he says y’all.
A whole 9 yards refers to a sailing ship, all sails unfurled. 3 yards per sail. If you are going at it you are using a full 9 yards.
Broil is specifically to use the top heating element inside an oven, rather than the bottom heating element; it's hotter so it cooks quicker, plus it browns the top of food, so you get bubbly and browned nelted cheese on top of a casserole by broiling it for a few minutes after baking it most of the way through.
"In the ball park" & "threw them a curve ball" are both particularly American phrases, since they come from baseball. "In the ball park" means "in the vicinity, in the same general region," & not just physically speaking -- a numerical estimate is often called a "ball park figure" since it's supposed to be a number that's "in the ball park" of the exact figure. "Throwing someone a curve ball" is springing something unexpectedly on someone -- another baseball expression for something unexpected would be that something "came out of left field".
The Oxford English dictionary dates the use of "the whole nine yards" to 1855, & apparently "the whole six yards" was used earlier still, but it's not clear if it's talking about yards of ground or yards of fabric or yards of rope or yards of distance or what. We also have "the whole ball of wax", "the whole enchilada", & "the whole shebang" which all mean exactly the same thing as "the whole nine yards". "For the birds" apparently comes from WWII US military slang -- due to birds being observed pecking seeds out of horse manure, anything third rate or useless was called "sh*t for the birds", which was subsequently cleaned up to be "it's for the birds".
Now *I* want to know about the origins of the Northern English expression "trouble at t'mill"!
The commonly considered origin for "the whole nine yards" refers to the supposed length of ammo belts carried in a WWII fighter plane's wings. So, "I gave him the whole nine yards" meant the pilot shot all his ammo at one target.
Throw them back a googly.
"Trouble at t'mill" means there's a big, usually on-going problem. It comes from the industrial revolution when whole towns (especially in Yorkshire and Lancashire) were reliant on the employment at a mill (e.g. for the manufacture of fabrics). As problems on which a whole area depended on were far-reaching, "trouble at t'mill" was very serious. When it wasn't literally true because there was problems at a factory, it became a somewhat humerous phrase. I recommend watching the British comedy drama of "Brass" (ITV & Channel 4, 1983-1990) which illustrates it perfectly.
@@lancerevell5979 - that usage may have contributed to its popularity, but the phrase was in use long before aviation. One of the earliest usages referred to a seamstress who had been given nine yards of cloth, ordinarily enough for three shirts, and used the whole nine yards to make one - presumably rather fancy - shirt.
If you told an American you were going to "grill this chicken", they would assume you were going to cook it on either an outdoor grill, like a propane or charcoal grill (what Brits would call a barbecue) or an indoor gas grill (the same thing but with a vent hood over it for grilling without going outside).
On the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock was the first signer and his signature is the largest. Supposedly, he said that he wanted King George to be able to read it without his spectacles..
I guess John Hancock signed His name in Big , Bold , Fancy letters to P*ssed off King George.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The terms freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior are also used for the four years of high school.
Do you and the whole 9 yards that is definitely a popular reference in my generation again I'm 56 years old. That basically means that you have committed to some thing you started it and you are going to finish it no matter what.
Important context about the phase "Monday Morning Quarterback":
The quarterback is the leader of the team, and the games are traditionally played on Sunday.
I was pretty impressed on how quickly he caught on to the meanings of these phrases.
Scripted of course
He already talked about freshman and sophomore on a video he made like four years ago, so he already knew.
Yeah, it's more-than-likely that he did his due diligence before filming. He's a pro; been at this for enough years, he's not terribly likely to get caught unawares.😉
It’s almost like he knows and explained it a bit better than her
"The Whole Nine Yards" comes from WWII, the American troops would feed nine yards of ammo into their anti-personnel guns, so if you shot everything you had at someone, you gave them "The Whole Nine Yards."
Years ago, I remember reading the etymology for the phrase, "for the birds" as being from when horses were our primary means of transport. When a horse would need to do its business, it would do so anywhere in the street, and the birds would flock to the ... Business ... to consume whatever they could (kernels, etc).
Therefore, saying "It's For The Birds" is a polite way of saying, "That's Horse $hit"!
I really hope that it's true, because I LOVE that explanation! 😂
SHIT= Ship High In Transit...because the manure could explode low in the cargo ships😉
You're correct. The phrase was originally "$#!t for birds".
That is hilarious! I've never heard that before even though I enjoy learning where different phrases come from.
I've always used the phrase "this shit is for the birds."
@@laras678 I can't read that without thinking, "$hit for brains!", Which is pure Gold!
Very interesting and entertaining. In German 'Knock on wood' exists completely the same, 'for the birds' is like 'for the fishes' (colloquial Austrian German), 'broiler' seems to have french roots and has been adopted by East Germans for grilled chicken iirc
As a youngster in the Northeast, my mother would warn that we should not eat the last pieces of bread from a particular package because they were stale and she was keeping them for the birds. She tear them up and scatter them in the yard and watch the birds come by to pick them up. This bread was inferior for our consumption. I think this is how "for the birds" got it's meaning. Something so inferior that it's not fit for anyone's attention.
In the u.s. grilled chicken tends to be chicken done on a grill either charcoal, wood, or gas often outdoors
The whole nine yards came from WWII. When pilots would return from mission they would say "I gave then the whole nine yards". The ammunition belt from each gun was 27 feet long or 9 yards, so if they fired every bullet to do everything they could do, it was the whole nine yards!
The sophomore thing is also used other context as well. I've mostly heard it when talking about music artists, referring to their second album as their "sophomore" album. I also think I've heard the first album being called "freshman debut"
Also the dreaded "sophomore slump" - that second album that doesn't live up the debut.
I was going to add “my two cents” and say something about John Hancock and about freshman / frosh - but I see that others have already weighed in on those topics.
Frosh is used sometimes as the plural of freshman, but it's an older term.
When referring to high school/college (University) years, some are obvious. "Freshman", as a way to denote the newest and "Senior" to denote the oldest are pretty straight forward. Junior is a little odd, but essentially means 'younger than the seniors'. The really interesting name is Sophomore: This is thought to derive from folk use of two Greek terms, sophos, meaning “wise,” and moros, meaning “foolish, dull,”. Sophomore originally probably meant a wise moron! I think this is applied to 2nd year students as many THINK they are now experienced, but they still have a lot to learn. This term dates back to the 1650s.
There are several origins that I've heard for "the whole nine yards," but the one I give the most credence to is that upper-class women would buy cloth for clothing for themselves and their families, usually in nine-yard bolts. They would then give the cloth to their servants who made their clothes (or, in some cases, to a piece-work clothesmaker) and specify what they wanted made from it. Because these lower-class tradesmen and women had the habit of keeping some of the cloth for themselves, to use to make their own clothes, they would often be braced to use "the whole nine yards" on the garments they were being told to make. In that version of the saying, it has the meaning of "going all in" on a goal, without necessarily considering your own needs first. So, when you give it your all, with no concern for yourself, you're going "the whole nine yards."
Personally, I'm partial to its origin being with early fighter planes. The ammunition belts for their machine guns were supposedly 9 yards long. Any fighter plane that returned from a sortie with no ammunition was said to have given the enemy "the whole nine yards".
@@MikeDCWeld if you go count the rounds they carried and the length that would be you'll see that they vary greatly as more and less than 9 yards.
If I recall correctly, “the whole nine yards” originated in the fabric industry. A bolt of fabric was nine-yards long. You buy by the yard. One yard, two yards, six yards, “the whole nine yards.” So, the phrase means “all of it.”
I've heard it was from WWII. The ammunition belts on B-17 bombers were 9 yards long.
the expression ''the whole nine yards'' come from? The bullets for the machine guns used in American combat planes of WW2 and since were in chains twenty-seven feet in length. Thus if a pilot was able to fire all his bullets off at one target he was said to have given his adversary 'the full nine yards'.
@@gtkline But a chain is 22 yards.
Not sure what a chain of amo is. But the 50 cal gun system of the P-51 Mustang had an amo belt that was exactly 27 feet, or 9 yards, in length when fully assembled. I carried a 100 round starter belt of 7.62mm amo for my m240B machine gun, while my assistant gunner carried up to 1000 rounds. We never measured the legth.
The whole nine yards stems from the length of a string of ammunition in world war 2 aircraft. When a pilot unloaded his entire string of ammunition into another aircraft, he gave the other pilotthe whole nine yards.
I"m a southern lady I'm going to teach our British friends 2 phrases we use down here that is used alot (in my region at least)
1st is "Over Yonder"
Ok, in the town you live for example, you know where the favorite pub is, your family does, friends does,etc.
But someone who isn't from your area doesn't. You're giving directions to them to this pub, as a local here we say "oh that's "over yonder" (like over the hill, across the street, past the stop sign) of course the person your giving directions to has no clue where "over yonder " is ,this isn't very helpful, but it's a habit in the south of the local community of knowing a precise location.
2nd is "Bless your heart"
This is a split phase that has 2 different meanings, listen to the tone of voice of how a southern applies it to you.
If we express it in kind understanding manner it's a expression of "I'm sorry you went threw that. Or you deserve better than what you got"
If it's expressed in scoffing manner or laughing manner , it's a sorta polite way to say " you're not very intelligent are you"
Now you're somewhat prepared for southern traditions.😅
In (northern) Britain we have a saying "it's a bit black over Bill's mother's" which means "it looks like there's a storm coming over yonder". Us old folk have many ways of saying an undefined distance in a general direction - "thataways", "it be a tidy step", "over the next hill", "down the road", "if you see the pub, you've gone too far", etc.
We use "bless your cotton socks" in much the same way you say "bless your heart", though it's more patronising than a genuine sentiment.
One phrase that I've noticed confusion from foreigners about was "What's happening?" It's a standard non-specific greeting but people not from the US think it refers to something specific.
In response to "What's happening?", I respond "Same old, Same old". Or "S² D²".
Those in the US who were alive in the 80s will recognize "What's happening?" as a non-specific greeting. We even had a television show called What's Happening!! in the 80s. Awesome show!
Maybe it’s generational? Older people in the USA know it’s non-specific. Generally, the answer to What’s happening? is It’s all good, you? or Not much, you? No one needs a verbal blow-by-blow of your day/week/year.
What’s happening? became noticed in the Southern US, the Caribbean, and the UK in the 1950s. Took off in the ‘70s (I think because of Jesus Christ Superstar), and then there was the sit-com. My $0.2.
Also, people in the U.S saying "hey, how's it going?" We're not actually asking to stop and chat, it's a simple greeting as you passby.
@@instantfizz It was a term from the 1970s. What’s Happening aired from ‘76-‘79.
Monday morning quarterback: It is a reference to Sunday night football. It means to give an opinion after the fact. It is like telling someone who has already played the game what should have been done during the game the night before.
One of the few things I really enjoy about the south, is that I get to use triple and even sometimes quadruple contractions. For example, shouldn’t’ve, i’dn’t, ain’t’ve, etc. in that vein you get the idea. They’re very fun to whip out in text form bc most ppl I know don’t notice them auditorally
Fixin’ to! (Getting ready to do something/ go somewhere)
I have used y'all're many times. "If y'all're ready, let's go!"
Or other bizarre figures of speech. My ex-wife used the expression "might could have." Made me LOL every time.
jeet? = did you eat?
@@Moohasha1 My house: If y’all’re all ready, y’all’d best git goin’. Ah’ll holler at all y’all later, k? 😄
I remember getting puzzled by the phrase "ballpark" when used for estimating and guesses, which wasn't something that was used abroad as an expression, and if taking the term literally then we don't have a "ballpark" anywhere else. Fortunately I've watched enough Hollywood films and travelled a bit enough to figure out what this meant when I first heard that phrase.
The adjective, ballpark, comes from the phrase "in the ballpark" which comes from the game of baseball. A ball hit in the ballpark is playable, so it is reasonably close and manageable. A ball hit out of the ballpark is not playable. It is designated a home run, with all runners scoring.
I once had to do an experiment in quantitative chemistry. My results were all over the place. But on average, statistically they were "in the ballpark " and I reported that to my professor. His response was that they were in the bleachers on the 3rd baseline. So so I wasn't even close. Failed that one, oh well.
@@jmatt56 - I don’t think getting the average “in the ballpark” counts. That would be like hitting a foul ball to the left, then another to the right, and claiming that on the average they were fair.
You guys are terrific together! Regarding the "freshman" word, some people will shorten the word to "frosh."
There's a great scene in the 1942 movie "Casablanca" when the piano player, Sam, sings the song "Knock on Wood"
I'm from the US South. I heard the saying "a country mile" - meaning something isn't closeby or it takes a long time to do something. Anyway, I've always used the term "John Hancock" . As in: 'where do I sign my John Hancock" or "can you read my John Hancock"
My favorite British phrase. I watched a British comedy in which a lady announced that she "could really use a good rodgering." Love that term!
In Spain we also say touch wood, and the meaning is the same. Instead of knocking, we touch the table with the index and pinky, like this 🤘, and if there's none around, we touch our own head
Here in the US, we would knock on our heads if there is no wood❤️🐝🐝
Y'all is definitely a regional thing. People in other parts of America will say You-All or You Guys. Just different ways of addressing multiple people at the same time, ie. 2nd Person Plural.
In Texas and its environs, you'll also hear something of a greeting like "Howdy Y'All!" The "Howdy" is short for the ancient greeting "How do you do?"
In Southern Illinois, we say Y'all. We are a strange amalgamation of the South and the Mid West.
In some places, particularly in the mideast, they use "yins" instead.
Or yooz
@@craigplatel813 hey, youse ghuys!
@@michelehenne2477
We say Y'all in central Illinois too but it's more like 'Y'all be doin' too much' and 'TF is y'all doin'?' No twang added😂
Y'all has so many more versions that can make anyone learning American English cross their eyes. my favorite is all'y'all'd've, which roughly translates to "all of you all should have"
Apparently you've never read "Through the Looking Glass", since Humpty Dumpty, in explaining the strange words in Jabberwocky, says that "brillig" refers to the time when you begin broiling things for dinner.
The whole nine yards (to give all you got) comes from WWII fighter aircraft, the ammo belts for the guns where nine yards long. Giving the whole nine yards was giving the other guy all the ammo you had.
Look it up on Wikipedia. The phrase predates WWI, so it can't refer to WWII aircraft.
High School - 9th grade = Freshman, 10th grade = Sophomore, 11th grade - "Junior" 12th grade = "Senior."